Geek Elitism

I’ve noticed this weird sort of “geek elitism” during my Internet travels. Some people who are more focused on using computers as an end in themselves rather than a means tend to look down on those who prefer to use computers as a tool. I’ve seen myriad comment threads in which someone inevitably shows up saying “Mac sucks because you can’t build one yourself/upgrade it/tweak the hell out of it,” and talking about their home-built Windows or Linux systems, or how Windows or Linux is better than the Mac for the reasons that I specified above. That’s nice for you, honestly, but I really don’t want to build my own computer, especially when I can’t run my preferred operating system on it out of the box without violating Apple’s EULA or having to tweak a lot of settings in order to get it to work. (Not that I’m particularly fond of current copyright law, but.)

Believe it or not, not everyone wants to sit around tweaking a computer in order to make it work! I do understand that some people derive satisfaction from it—in fact, I used to spend a lot of time tweaking my Windows systems’ software—but these days, I am less involved in that, and would rather have a solution that I can “set and forget,” without constant adjustments that distract me from my work. My preference for ease of use and intuitive operation isn’t inferior; I’d say that it’s just a different preference, and I’m kind of tired of seeing the Linux and Windows fanboys/girls and hardware geeks coming out and insulting Mac users just because they don’t like tweaking every single piece of their hardware and software. (This isn’t just limited to Windows and Linux people; I’m tired of fellow Mac people doing the same thing to Windows and Linux users.) We chose to use a different platform from you; that doesn’t make us inferior or dumb. I mean, I don’t go around insulting Windows and Linux users, because there’s really no point. Windows and Linux do the job for them, so who am I to go “LOL WINDOZE SUX GET A MAC RITE NOW”?